Review: Tatty Hennessy’s adaptation of George Orwell’s Animal Farm at Nottingham Playhouse
The lines between human and animal are blurred more than ever before in Tatty Hennessy’s hard-hitting adaptation of George Orwell’s political satire.
The cast of Animal Farm are simply dressed in workwear branded with their animal title, the set a dystopian landscape of cages and chains, making it all the easier to see the regime for what it is.
While not dressed as animals, the actors bring real animalistic nature to their roles — grunting, snorting, growling, and bounding around the stage as if they truly had no human qualities.
This effectively balances out the issues of having people with two legs on stage as they chant “four legs good, two legs bad” — their physicality at first failing to allow the audience to see them as anything but the animals they represent.
In fact, it’s a hugely physical production, there’s moments of slowness in the intensely choreographed fight scenes, sign language integrated throughout to drive home the important motifs of the work, and plenty of pushing, pulling, and lifting as the animals get to work.
Human and animal behaviour interplays throughout, the ‘lesser’ animals gradually seeming to reduce to their baser instincts for survival — Joshua-Alexander Williams as Blue in particular becoming more savage — and the pigs, under Napoleon’s (Tachia Newall) tyrannical leadership, lose theirs and instead take on scheming human qualities.
In particular, runt sidekick Squealer (Tom Simper) delivers an performance which you can almost imagine in a more traditional play, as a scheming, plotting, devious, yet entirely innocent and meek seeming character.
Everal A Walsh leaves within the first act, as the Old Major, but in his short time on stage he exudes a calm strength, and leaves a lasting memory throughout the play. He cleverly represents the ideal of the Animal Farm, while not being around to see how it turns out.
As for the real humans — even with no lines to speak, Kaya Ulasli is at first a menacing farmer Jones, lauding above his flock, cracking a whip, setting the scene to be recreated in the pig’s dictatorship, but even worse.
There are real laugh-out-loud moments of humour injected into the play to prevent it from becoming too bleak — but nonetheless it leaves a lasting impact.
While set on a farm, the use of metal and industrial looking scenery in Hayley Grindle’s design makes it easy to imagine the animals regime in a factory, a city, a human life.
It brings the fable further away from its original ‘fairy tale’ title than ever before, removing all fantasy, all puppetry, and masks, and applying it directly to modern-looking people in a modern-looking world.
It is not surprising at all that it garnered an Olivier Award nomination for the best new play in affiliate theatre — and while it didn’t secure a win at the prestigious ceremony, it certainly delivers a winning performance on stage.
Animal Farm runs at Nottingham Playhouse until April 12, where it’s on stage following runs at co-producing venues Stratford East and Leeds Playhouse.
